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 Post subject: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 9:50 am 
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A few months back I got lot of different colored rough Tourmalines from Afghanistan, of which a few were shared after being cut and polish. There was one piece that I got made recently, a 4.2 carat one. Here's the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrrmXDXkFWw


As you can see, its purely blue, without any indication of a greenish tinge or color to it, which we'd normally find in Indicolite tourmalines. I've tried it from different angles but no greenish texture/tinge comes out. For e-g, I have one (a 6 carat piece, shared earlier) that is greenish-blue (or bluish-green). Here's the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hQX7JLMe68



However, most of the written material on Indicolites put it in the same class as a Blue Tourmaline. So my question is: is a blue tourmaline, which doesn't give any hint of a greenish texture, the same as Indicolite? Or are the two different?


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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 12:32 pm 
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Do not need to see a video to answer your question.
A couple of paragraphs into this article will tell you how the industry identifies a blue tourmaline or a greenish blue.
https://www.gia.edu/tourmaline-description
Greenish-Blue and Blueish-Green are two different color definitions. Your use of them both as OR, doesn't fit in your question asked.

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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 1:52 pm 
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In my experience, I'd call the upper one indicolite and the second, a teal colored tourmaline. :D


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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 4:06 pm 
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@glhays Thanks for clarifying. The article explains it well.


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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 5:45 pm 
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I do agree with Barbra, if I were writing a description for the teal second stone on our site it would be just that a teal colored tourmaline.

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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:54 am 
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Teal colored or blue, I am fine with both. But I did see another tourmaline piece, a 6 carat pink one; My word, have never seen such a beautiful, clean piece in Tourmalines.


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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 9:33 am 
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This is how I look at it.

I always start my color judgments from a place of consistent descriptors. In my case, I rely on the GIA color system, which is also implemented in the MyGemeWizard App.

https://gemesquare.com/index.html

Indicolite is a Tourmaline Species with a variety call dependent on color, which must be Blue.

Here is GIA's definition: Indicolite is dark violetish blue, blue, or greenish blue tourmaline.

As we all know colors in gemstones are rarely pure. So using the GIA nomenclature the first and only capital letter in the color descriptor must be the Capital "B".

So B, vB, gB, would both fall into the proper color range. But GB, BG, bG, would not. This gives us a consistent Indicolite color from which to apply the Indicolite Variety name, within a range of colors.

It should also be noted that in GIA's description there is a requirement for a tone call of Dark or stronger.


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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:51 pm 
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Mohmand wrote:
Teal colored or blue, I am fine with both. But I did see another tourmaline piece, a 6 carat pink one; My word, have never seen such a beautiful, clean piece in Tourmalines.

There you go again. Of course your fine with it, you want the best of all worlds. But you are incorrect in that use. Your analogy is if your eyes see blue in the gemstone it is better to call it Indicolite than just a blueish-green or teal colored tourmaline.
1Bwana1 explains it the way the industry calls colors so that we are all in the same arena when knowing what a stone is described as. Pictures do not always translate true colors from camera to camera, viewing device to viewing device.

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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 1:57 pm 
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I use GeneWizard for all my color determinations on appraisals.
It's the best and most convenient tool.


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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:14 pm 
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In fairness, Mohmand if your meaning was just your okay with it being either or. Then I read to much into your statement, followed by a none related pink tourmaline.
I apologize if so.

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 Post subject: Re: Are blue and Indicolite tourmalines the same?
PostPosted: Sun Oct 31, 2021 5:01 am 
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Yes @glhays, that is exactly what I meant :-) , that I like both of them, regardless of whether I got the categorization wrong or right.


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